Those vigorous little fuckers did it again. This time, I couldn't find the other half of the airlock, which necessitated an emergency trip to ACE hardware to pick up some 7/16 OD tubing and making a ad-hoc blowoff tube. The beer is swirling and churning and producing CO₂ like there's no tomorrow.

Ok, situation somewhat remedied, the beer started coming out the airlock again. I tried to make a blowoff tube, but failed (wrong size tube). I ended up moving the carboy to the top of the washing machine and taking the "cap" off of the airlock, so it still functions as an airlock, but if it foams over, it can do so freely.

Batch 4.0 decided to explode all over my carpet and shoot half the airlock off sometime in between 3 and 10 am. The situation has been remedied as I have moved cleaned the mess and moved the beer to the linoleum floor of my kitchen.

Batch 3 is ready and it tastes great. Joseph and I are currently brewing some red ale from the Seven Bridges Brewing Co-Op. I'll try and get a camera and post pictures. Let me know if I owe you beer.

It turns out that the beer wasn't in fact black, and it tastes fine. Joseph and I finally bottled batch #3 today and it will be ready for consumption in about a week. Huzzah. Once Joseph gets back from Santa Cruz, I look forward to brewing some red ale.

So I swung by Zach & Russ' last night at about 1am to check up on the beer. Well, the beer is black. It also doesn't appear to be bubbling, swirling or churning.

Why is the beer black? I don't know. Black beers, like Guinness, get their dark color from a small amount of dark malt mixed in with the normal malt. We used the same malt we've always used. In the past, our fermentation has looked like dirty orange juice, but this time our beer is black. I am frightened.

Tomorrow, I will dry hop the beer, then add the gelatin on Thursday and bottle on Friday.

Some of you may have this seen this story on Yahoo! News about a beer batch in Iran that went bad and has, so far, killed 22 people. The most important graphs:

"TEHRAN (Reuters) - A toxic batch of homebrew alcohol has killed 22 people in southern Iran and put scores more in hospital, local officials said Tuesday.

"Alcohol is officially banned in the Islamic state. But those determined to break the enforced sobriety can purchase smuggled imports on the black market or buy locally made spirits.

"Some of them died after days of suffering in hospital," Hossein Ali Amiri, a judiciary official in the southern Fars province, told state television.

"Amiri said 93 people had been hospitalized after drinking the brew, which doctors suspect may have contained methanol, which is toxic."

What most amazes me is the number of people who partook in the batch. Over 90 people had some of the moonshine. That's quite a client list.

This whole event underlines the fallacy of prohibition. While I greatly sympathize with Islam's prohibition on alcohol as part of an unhealthy and unclean lifestyle, making it illegal clearly has its own unhealthy side effects. I'd be interested in seeing a report of how many died during prohibition in the United States because of A) bad moonshine or, B) violence stemming from the creation and distribution of illegal alcohol. After all, organized crime got its start in this country running beer rackets in big cities like Chicago and New York. Is there an organized beer-crime racket going on in Iran today? Is there a Muhammad al-Capone out there? These are important questions. I'm calling the State Department right now.

In the meanwhile, I would like to note that our beer has, so far, killed not a single person, and only made evenings more enjoyable for all. The third batch, by the way, is going well. We're moving to the secondary carboy in a day or two.

Adventure!

Russ informs me that the fermentation is coming along nicely, however, thanks in part to my roommate Chris, Hedgehog Homebrew Co. Is now sans racking cane. While this part is not mission critical, it would be nice to have one, or even better, an autosiphon, to transfer beer from primary to secondary fermenter. Naturally, this calls for a trip to our favorite store, the Homebrew Outlet in "Sacramento". Sac is in quotes because the Outlet is basically in Carmichael. That being said, Russ and I would appreciate a ride out there and would reciprocate your kindness with beer. Before getting yourself into this, make sure you know where the Homebrew Outlet is.





Homebrew Outlet
5528 Auburn Blvd
Sacramento, CA

I've posted some photos via a program called Hello. I'd give them a free plug, but they plug themselves already (see icon at end of each photopost). More photos to come whenever we get our hands on a digital camera.

Arlen uses the handy spigot to transfer beer from the primary to secondary fermenter. After talking to the guys at the homebrew store, we decided this wasn’t such a good idea. By using the spigot, we were transferring the trub. For some reason, we thought the trub was necessary. This is before we knew what trub was, or that there was even such a word as trub.

Trub is a fancy word for “crap that sits at the bottom of your fermenter.” This crap is mostly composed of spent grain, dead yeast and other solids that precipitate out of the beer. Note: trub is gross.

To avoid trub suckage (a technical brewing term) we now use a racking cane. What may sound like something they use for punishment in Singapore is basically a stainless steel, or in our case plastic, tube with a plastic cap on the end. The racking cane is set gently on top of the trub and then used to siphon beer between fermenters. The plastic cap keeps out things we don’t want, such as hop leaves and gravity ensures the solids stay at the bottom of the fermenter.

After transfering the beer, we fill waterballons with the trub and save them to throw at people we don't like.
 

This is our enamleware kettle. It probably holds five gallons, but we never boil that much wort at once. In the future, we hope to have a large, stainless steel kettle heated by a large propane burner.

In this picture, it is filled with iodated water to sterilize some equipment.
 

This is our secondary fermenter, a five gallon glass carboy. The orange thingy is a handle. A five gallon glass carboy is heavy when full of water, and given our propensity to spill (water not beer) everywhere, often slippery.

The thingy in the top is an airlock stuck in a rubber stopper. The airlock ensures that the yeast will not be able “breathe” oxygen and be forced into anaerobic respiration, thereby generating CO₂ and alcohol.

The green things floating in the top are hop pellets. 

For those of you interested, Joseph pointed me to a great brewing supply store. The Northern Brewer offers just about everything any homebrewer could dream up, including stainless steel conical fermenting, brix refractometers and a full line of draft beer supplies.

Well kids, we're back in action. Brew batch #3 started about four minutes ago, after a quick run to H20 for Less and the Nugget to try out a new water supply.

We expect this batch to be awesome. It's finals, and some beer is in order. With any luck we'll have a good five gallons ready in no time and give it away. Looking for some brew? Let us know!

Anyway, more blogging on batch #3 to come.

Well, the first stage of fermenting on batch #3 has begun, and it's looking great. I have high hopes for this batch, the temperatures and specific gravity were much more in line than previous batches, and so far nothing has spilled anywhere too bad. We should have a nice batch ready to go in about two weeks. Unforunately I will be out of town in San Diego, and won't get to enjoy any of my own tasty product unless Arlen sends me down some. What that means is that we'll have a ton of extra beer, so if you're in the Davis area and want some beer for free, let me know!

Well, now that they've updated Blogger, I guess we'll have to start posting soon!

New comments system in a few days, and a new brew next week. W00t.

The Beer Prayer (stolen, original author unknown)

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink.
Thy will be drunk,
At home as in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us.
And lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers.
For thine is the beer, The bitter and The lager.
Forever and ever,
Barmen

Slow but steady
In case you don't know, finals come upon the battered souls of UC Davis. As such, posts to Beer Lab inluding what happened in the final days of the brew, and how the beer party went, will be coming in slowly in the next two weeks. If you have any questions, just let us know!

Awesome Beer Party!!!

Well, the beer is in the fridge and The "Awesome Beer Party" is tomorrow at Russ' apartment. I've encouraged Russ go home and drink a bottle of the beer. However, if he dies the party's off. If you're reading this, you're probably invited.

Ask Arlen or Russ how to get to Russ' apartment.

Hey all. My name's Ben. I go to school in Vermont, so I figured I'd contribute my exploration of Vermont microbrews to this growing compendium of beer knowledge. Actually, I just wanted a good reason to stop drinking Busch Light. I'll try to post a new brew every week, depending on my money supply and the motivation of my supplier. I hope to get through Long Trail and Magic Hat by the end of the school year, maybe a bit of Otter Creek (Middlebury's very own!). So anyway, I hope you enjoy. And if you want to talk Vermont beer, feel free to e-mail me here. No, wait, here. I'm gonna start off this week with Long Trail Ale.

Long Trail Brewing Company

The Long Trail Brewing Company is based in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont. They brew and bottle all of the beer there. The company is named after a hiking trial that runs the entire vertical length of Vermont, from Massachusettes to Canada. Long Trail beers are not as popular at Middlebury College as other local brews, but they are known for having a variety of tasty brews and really fucking cool labels. Each bottle is adorned with their classic backpacker on a red background. Flavors include Long Trail Ale, Blackberry Wheat, India Pale Ale, the Pollenator, Double Bag, and the Hibernator. Unfortunately, they do not distribute much outside New England, so the next time you head to the Northeast, be sure to pick up a pack. Visit them online here.

Long Trail Ale

The Long Trail Ale is the basic Long Trail beer. It was first brewed in 1989. The label is a nice green with a picture of their brewery set against the Green Mountains. If you look closely at the label, you can see the green background is made up of topo lines. Probably of Vermont. A nice touch. The label calls it a "full bodied amber ale" with a "complex, yet clean, full flavor." The color is light gold, with a pleasant, full aroma. As for the taste, clean, not complex, is a good description. There is no extra sweetness, maltiness, or bitterness. The beer is medium weight and smooth. The aftertaste is particularly refreshing and a smooth malt flavor lingers after the bottle is finished. This beer would be excellent with a sandwich or pizza. Unfortunately, a six pack costs about seven dollars, a little higher than some other beers of comparable quality. However, Long Trail Ale is high on class, so just make sure your guests notice what you're serving.

Is That Fecal Coliform You're Drinking?

According to the most recent Davis Water Quality Report (2002). The weighted average for bacterial coliform is a 3.9% positive sample. This means that 3.9% of the time the water coming out of the tap in Davis will contain bacteria that came from someone's ass. As if foot beer was not bad enough, now we have to worry about our beer tasting like ass. Literally.

Luckily, Russ and I use Arrowhead Water which – although not regulated by federal standards – contains zero bacteria, according to their customer service representative.

Eventually, Russ and I should look into some sort of carbon or reverse osmosis filtering system. We would still need to sterilize our water, but it would be cheaper in the long run and we would have more palatable tap water. For those of who have not had the devine pridvledge of tasting davis water, it tastes a lot like the pesticides and fertilizers they spray and inject into the water table year round. The Davis Public Works water system consists of 29 wells across the city. The well water is pumped out of the ground, run through a coarse filter and chlorinated. Wonderful.

Well I'll be damned
As a few of you have noted, I've lamented in the past few days that our beer does not look like beer. It looks like dirty orange juice. Well, not anymore. While making breakfast this morning I picked up the open glass of beer we have sitting atop the fridge and, believe it not, it was very clear. I even stuck my finger behind the glass. There it was! I could see my finger behind the glass! This my friends is good news. I haven't held any degree light tests (which gives us, in numerical format, a reading how clear the beer is) but I am excited. More posts on the way.

Brew of a kind
Are AmBev's Carlos Brito and UCD's Charlie Bamforth long lost relatives?

The world may never know.

Questions for home brewers
As promised, here is the incomplete and unedited list of questions Arlen and I are preparing to ask any and all home brewers we come across in the next few weeks. I stress this is a list in progress so questions could change. And of course, once we get answers we’ll begin to compile some sort of FAQ on another page. Dang, this website is a lot of work. Ahh, but it is all for the cause!

1. What’s the best way to filter out hops and other undesirable materials? At what stages should we filter, and how often?
2. How much yeast do we take out of the secondary fermentor?
3. How much yeast is ideally on the bottom of a secondary fermentor?
4. What are the benefits of “live” yeast cultures?
5. Do 22oz bottles condition differently than 12oz?
6. What’s an idea amount of time for bottle conditioning?
7. How do you get rid of color gradient?
8. What’s up with the gelatin?
9. Does the priming sugar affect the clarity at all?
10. Why doesn’t our beer look like beer?
11. Our beer looks like dirty orange juice. Is this a common product in first time brewing? What can we do to make our beer look better?

The financial data, aka what we spent to make this stuff, is forthcoming. It’s currently stuck inside an Excel spreadsheet and will take a few days to sort into something that looks remotely like a readable document. All of these documents will also be wrapped together for a Batch 001 Postmotem where we identify processes, good and bad decisions and outline a list of things to do next time. I’m not sure when we will begin Batch 002, but I suspect it will be in a week or two.

Equipment list
The following is what amounts to a total inventory of materials after one completed batch of beer. Most of the big materials listed below (such as the buckets and the carboy) was donated by a very nice man who bequeathed to us (he didn’t die) his beer operation. Other things, such as the wort cooler, were built by our very own hands. Okay Arlen built them and I watched, but close enough. This equipment list is by no means complete and we’re still learning just exactly what equipment is most important to the process. Of course we’re free to answer any questions, and like the instructions list we hope to make an equipment page with accompanying images and notes. But for now, here be our goodz:

1. Stainless steel kettle with lid. Minimum capacity of 5 gallons. Used to boil brewing water and wort.
2. Large stainless steel spoon, for stirring the wort.
3. Two 6.5 to 10 gallon fermenting buckets with airtight-capable lid, food-grade plastic. For fermenting (duh).
4. At least two rocking tubes (3/8th inch outside diameter) and 5-foot clear plastic hose. For siphoning beer from one bucket to another.
5. Hose clamps to seal tubes when transporting liquids.
6. Hose connecting to sink.
7. 5-gallon glass (no plastic) carboy, secondary fermentor.
8. Three-piece airlock and No. 6.5 drilled white rubber stopper. Airlock fits in the stopper, which on fits the mouth of the glass carboy, keeping oxygen in while losing carbon dioxide.
9. Carboy brush and bottle brushes, used for cleaning
10. Bottle capper
11. Hydrometer and sample jar (see pages 6-7 for explanation).
12. Bottles, preferably brown bottled longnecks. No twist top. Sam Adams bottles work real well if you're too cheap to buy bottles. We went ahead and popped for 36 22oz. bottles.
13. Funnel(s). Makes pouring things a hell of a lot easier.

What we don’t have but is recommended:
1. Thermometer, preferably dial with 1degree marks, with adjusting nut.
2. Scale, small. Full range of 0-4, 0-8 ounces, marked in 1/4th oz. divisions.
3. VERY fine mesh-straining bag for seeping malt grains.
4. Four 1-gallon jugs, preferably glass for storing cold in the fridge.

Make sure to sterilize the following whenever possible (Idophol is your friend, buy tons of it):
1. Siphon tubes
2. Wort chiller
3. Wort tub
4. Carboy
5. Fermenting bucket and lid
6. Measuring cup
7. Spoon
8. Thermometer case

So yes, as you can see we have an entire manufacturing floor full of wonderful state-of-the-art equipment! And by manufacturing floor I mean my kitchen.

Instructions list
As promised, here are our instructions for producing 640oz (5 gallons) of California Pale Ale. On our first run we produced 26 22oz bottles or 618oz of brew. These instructions are compiled from a few sources, but is based mostly on those received along with the White Labs Kit that we brew from. Eventually we hope to establish a separate web page that take readers through the process step by step with accompanying pictures and notes. Of course, both Arlen and myself are free for consultation at any time. Keep in mind that we are amateurs learning all we can, but hey we’re nice guys so give us a ring.

1. If not using pre-purified water, boil 2-3 gallons of water for 15 minutes. Set aside in covered container.
2. Put at least 2 gallons of water into the wort pot. Seep grains @ 155° F for 30 minutes.
3. Before discarding grain rinse with 2-4 cups of warm water into the pot.
4. Bring the liquid to a good boil.
5. Remove kettle from heat. Stir in malt syrup, dry malt, kettle sugars and/or rice extract. Do not add the priming sugar.
6. When malt is fully dissolved return kettle to heat and bring to boil.
• (Total boil time is about 1 hour)
7. Boil the wort vigorously for 5 minutes. Then add boiling hops.
• Always reducing the heat before each hop addition greatly reduces the chance of boil overs.
8. Add the Irish moss.
9. Add the finishing hops during the last 10 minutes of the boil.
10. Turn heat off. Cool using wort cooler.
11. Siphon off into fermentor, add water, bringing volume to five gallons. Add yeast to the fermentor when wort temperature is 75-80° F. Measure with hydrometer during siphon.
12. Rehydrade yeast for 15 minutes in sterile water at 75-85° F by sprinkling yeast over half cup of sanitized water. Cover with foil.
13. Aerate wort by shaking the fermentor vigorously for 2-3 minutes at a time. Do this a few times in the first few hours in the fermentor.
• Do not aerate after fermentation is started.
• Let ferment for 5-7 days.
14. Siphon brew into carboy from bucket. Measure with hydrometer as siponing is occurring. Let brew sit in carboy for 5-7 days.
15. Add gelatin to 1 pint of cold water and heat gently and stir until dissolved.
16. Add dissolved gelatin to beer in the fermentor and let clear for 2-3 days in the carboy.
17. Bottle.
• If you get greedy and over clear the beer in the secondary fermentor the beer will not have enough yeast to carbonate in the bottle.
• Prepare priming sugar by boiling with 2 cups of water for 10 minutes. Pour boiling solution into bottling vessel. Siphon the beer from secondary fermentor to your bottling vessel.
• Fill bottles and then cap.
18. Allow bottles to condition at room temperature for 7-10 days before chilling and serving.

We're done!
I am pleased to announce that Arlen and I have officially completed brew batch #001, our first foray into the world of home brewing. The bottling process went well, and sitting right now on my living room floor are 28 22oz. bottles of Hedgehog Pale Ale. Instructions recommend letting the bottles sit at room temperature for 7-10 before chilling and serving. We’ll probably let the brew sit for almost two weeks before chilling it. Home brewing has been an awesome experience, and I can’t wait to start on our second batch. Hopefully in six moths or so we’ll be expert brewers churning our quality beverage.

So, there’s good news and bad news to report. I’ll start with the good.

Our beer tastes pretty good. Before bottling we all tried a small sip and, believe it or not, it tastes like beer. It’s very sweet, due to the alcohol content and the sugars. There is no way to determine it at this point, but I’m pretty sure our beer is at least 7% ABV, or Alcohol By Volume. The nice thing is that ABV will increase, along with tastiness, as the brew sits in the bottles. Because carbonating a beverage is pretty darn expensive, we’ve gone ahead with bottle conditioning. By putting a little yeast in each bottle pressure builds creating carbonating, bubbles and of course foam. The downside is that one must pour out the beer into a cup before consuming it.

Believe it or not, Sierra Nevada actually bottle condition all of their beverages, or at least their Pale Ale. Go take one of their bottles and look for the layer of yeast at the bottom. Do you see it? Nope, not there. When you figure out how they do it, let me know.

The bad news, to put it bluntly, is that our beer is really ugly. While we knew it was impossible to get nice clear ale on our first try, I was hoping at least to be able to see a little bit through the bottle. But no, it’s opaque as the night. Furthermore, a large amount of hops were imported into each bottle. Hops aren’t bad for you, but they certainly aren’t tasty. What this means is that we’ll have to filter each beer before serving it to anyone. I have a lot more respect now for those crappy beer commercials that beam “cold filtered” for your pleasure or what not. Arlen and I will have to figure out a way to filter the beer for future brews. To sum it up, right now, the beer looks like dirty orange juice. Did I mention it tastes good?

There is a (very) small chance that the bottle conditioning process will greatly clarify the beer. I’m not really sure how this would plausibly happen, but perhaps the combination of carbonation and the materials settling to the bottom will improve the clarity and color. Like I said, this is highly unlikely, but I wanted to at least register my deep down wishes online.

What does all this mean? Gross beer party! You are officially invited to the Gross Beer Party, where (provided you come early enough, and are brave enough) you will receive one free 22oz bottle of Hedgehog Pale Ale. The party will be held on March 20th, time and location TBA. Watch the sidebar for further information.

Also, a number of you have been bugging me to upload our instructions and accompanying documents. I promise to upload those before the gross beer party. We’ve also written up a series of questions based on our first run.

The end is nigh
Arlen and I are, right now, discussing bottle washing strategies. Today is the day that we (finally) will bottle our brew. After we close up the bottles with a capper, it has to sit at room temperature for 7-10 days. We'll probably let it sit a bit longer so it'll all be ready for our Gross Beer Party. For more information on the party, and how you can obtain some free Gross Beer aka Hedgehog Pale Ale, stay tuned.

No longer the king of beers
The Miami Herald reports that Belgium's Interbrew and Brazil's AmBev are set to merge, creating "InterAmBev" otherwise known as the world's largest brewery. This displaces the American and St. Louis-based brewery Anheuser-Busch. The story of Brazil's AmBev is an amazing one of good brewing and business-making. The New York Times has a short but interesting overview of AmBev's three investors, and how they built a small unprofitable beer company into a global brewery giant. Seen below are two happy cats, Carlos Brito the chief executive of AmBev and Victorio de Marchi, co-chairman. The real question: What does the future hold for Beer Lab and Hedgehog Pale Ale?

Could this be Arlen and Russ in twenty years time?

Well, Russ added the gelatin last night, and Sunday we're going out the outermost reaches of Sacramento to procure more ingredients and a bottle washer. This means we will most likely bottle and start another brew on Sunday. That leaves Friday and Saturday to experiment with various beers. Unfortunatley, Arlen is rather low on funds at the moment, so if any of you would like to join Arlen in this Beer experience, you'll have to front the money yourself. Anyone who wishes to enjoy beer with Arlen is strongly encouraged to do so.

Last night Elly and I popped off the cork on the carboy and threw in the gelatin. As reported earlier, I wasn’t really sure what the effect the gelatin would have on the brew. The gelatin was advertised as supposed to break up the solids, and sure enough, that’s what it did. The layer of hops that was laying atop the batch dissipated quickly after we dropped in the gelatin (after dissolving it in a pint of warm water) and gave it a good stir.

Before closing back up the carboy took big whiff, and compared it to the smell of the Sierra Nevada that happened to be sitting next to me. I am proud to report that the brew smelled like a bunch of beer. I found the smell to be quite sweet, a tad musky (think Spaten) and somewhat appealing. The sweet smell is in line with what one would expect from a home brewed process. I was hoping for a better, more professional, smell, but Elly and Zach seemed to think the brew smelled nice and drinkable. We’ll see.

Without having a calendar in front of me, it looks like our Gross Beer Party will be happening on the Saturday night between finals. More information to come, but of course all Beer Lab readers are invited to attend. As always, stay tuned.

For all who have been inquiring, we will post our official list of instructions and notes, including financial data, in a few days—once we've bottled and begun storring batch 001.

It may just be a figment of my imagination, but I really think the brew is getting lighter as it sits in the secondary fermentor. In an effort to kill bad stuff we’ve let the brew sit in the carboy for almost a full seven days now, and plan to add in the gelatin either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. I am concerned that the hops we added into the carboy haven’t full dissolved, but instead have turned to mush and remain atop the entire mix. I’m not sure how exactly what’s going to happen with the hops when we add the gelatin.

To be honest, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen when we add the gelatin. As Arlen asked, “If the gelatin sucks out all the solids, what happens to the yeast? We need yeast in the bottle.” I hope we don’t have to take yeast samples from the bottom of the carboy and drop a little into each bottle. That sounds like a nightmare. The likely solution is that we’ll siphon from the bottom of the carboy.

Once the gelatin is added the brew must sit for another 2-3 days, which will give us plenty of time to sterilize the bottles and begin prepping for batches 002 and 003. A trip to the Homebrewer’s Warehouse in Sacto for a bottle washer and more brew kits may be in order.

Beer opinions needed!
Are you beer drinker? Better question, are you an opinionated beer drinker?? Then we need your help!

In an effort to turn this page into more than just a journal of how Russ and Arlen brewed disease and death, we're hoping to post reviews of new or local beers, brewpubs and bars. Found a new wonderful drink and just had to talk about it?? Post it here! Did a new brew make you want to kill yourself? Let others know! Beer drinking not about getting drunk and acting stupid, but about enjoying a nutritious beverage in the company of friends and family. We're hoping to develop a small ring of people, including ourselves, that regularly review new and hard-to-find brews. E-mail Russ or Arlen your beer review today!

Last Friday evening we transported the brew batch from the fementing bucket into the secondary fermentor, also known as a glass carboy. We had a few cameras on the scene, so I hope to have pictures uploaded pretty soon showing what that process is like.

When we popped the top of the bucket (to create some air for siphoning) I was fairly appalled at the smell. Don't get me wrong, it smelled of brew, but it was pretty rank as well. We intend to let it ferment as long as we can. Instructions say to let it sit in the carboy for 5-7 days, and we'll probably go for 7. Each day the beer in the carboy seems to be growing lighter and more "beer-like" which is a very good thing.

Also in the next couple of days I will follow up Arlen's posting of notes (see below) with my own documentation. Eventually we'll have a seperate page where you can view, in steps with pictures, how we go about brewing beer.

So, stay tuned for pictures and many more notes. Our gross beer party looks like it's about two weeks away, just in time for finals!

The following are my notes from the actual beer making process. Basically every book I’ve read on beer making has differing opinions as to the individual steps, but they all agree that the brewer should take copious notes. The bold text = notes I took while brewing, normal text = commentary.

Boil started @ 0
Added grain @ 10 min
155º F – Stirred occasionally. Good idea?

Well, I don’t mean boil so much as grain seeping step. I still don’t know if stirring it was a good idea, but it probably was.

Forgot to start timer
Est start time 7:00

Yeah, future note, note the actual time when you start heating the water or add the bag of grain. I’d like to point out that “boil started @ 0” is not in my handwriting.

Temp 7:20 - 170º F
Reduced heat
Future reference: temp to low once you reach 155º F

Basically, as soon as the wort hits 155º F turn the burners as low as they can go, then bring them up as needed.

Bag removed at 7:31 – burned fingers

155º F is quite hot, perhaps tongs would be a good investment for the future.

7:37 smells different 180º F
burners?

Yeah genious, perhaps if you boil grain in water for 30 minutes it’s going to smell different. I don’t remember why I wrote “burners” but it probably had something to do with my frustration with electric ranges.

7:46-7:49 added malt syrup and kicker
tastes like ultra sweet All-bran

As I’ve said before, malt syrup is a force to be reckoned with. We did have some trouble getting it all out of the bag. Perhaps we’ll use a squeegee next time or something. The more sugars there are in the wort the more alcohol you’re going to end up with.

Back on full heat at 7:52
Water boiling at 8:01
Hops added 8:06
Irish moss 8:08

Bleach solution good idea for cleaning small stuff

It would probably be a good idea to 1) check the Davis water bacterial load numbers so we know that we can rinse things with Davis water safely and 2) keep a bleach solution around to sterilize small things like thermometers

Wort off @ 9:01 added 1ga H2O
Wort cool at 9:26 (chiller malfunction from 9:01-9:10)

Let me explain the wort chiller to you. Basically, there’s two coils made of copper tubing, one sits in a bucket of ice, the other sits in the wort. Water flows from the tap, through the ice water coil, into the wort coil and then into the drain. We put the ice water coil in too early and the water froze inside the coil causing the water to not flow for the first ten minutes or so. In the future, put the coil in the ice bath without water in the tubes, or put the coil in the ice bath immediately prior to use.

Siphoning started at 9:43, yeast pitched

Dry yeast is lame.

Gravity? 1080?

Not that we know the usefulness of taking gravity readings, but our improper and more importantly useless gravity reading was 1080. This was higher than it should have been because we were measuring a concentrated portion of the wort, not the full 50 ga.

Shaking…

I’m not sure the 10 minutes of shaking the fermenter would have been possible without the POÄNG. Thank you Sweden.

Yar, lid not sterile.

mmm.. foot beer.

To my view the fermenting is looking good so far. Bubbles are popping up through the airlock regularly, which means (I think) that Co2 is sneaking out. There is a gradient of color in the bucket, from light gold/amber at the top to dark/black "stuff" at the bottom. Atop the water are fermentation bubbles and cream. Basically I think fermentation is proceeding correctly...so far.

So, my hopes are high. I don't want to drink 5 gallons of foot.

I'm beginning to worry that Russ and I are going to have to single handedly drink five gallons of our own beer. Beer which tastes like the socks I have been wearing for the last week and then soaked in All-Bran. This sterilization business isn't a myth. There's enough sugar in the fermenting tank to feed a small child for a week, and the only thing we want growing in there is Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Speaking of yeast, I was a little disappointed to find out that the White Lab's kit did not contain White Labs yeast. For the time being however, I think we should try and keep one recipe tasting decently.

I did, however, fulfill my long time goal of tasting malting syrup, which has the approximate viscosity of rubber cement on a cold day. What does it taste like, you ask? To find out yourself, go get some All-Bran, grind it into a fine powder in the coffee grinder and then mix it in with Karo. Delish. I did not venture to taste the hopps, or the hopped wort (wort is pronounced wert for those of you not in the know), but I think the smell did both justice.

If nothing explodes in the next five days, come Friday, Russ and I will transfer the fermenting beer from the bucket to the carboy. At this stage, we will add gelatin for some reason as well as the dry hops. The carboy is then plugged with an airlock and sits for another 5-7 days. After that, we bottle, which is an adventure of its own.

Arlen is vigorously shaking the fermenting bucket (which is full of brew) while I blog away. We managed to forget to sterilize the fermenting bucket lid. That wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that we have to shake the bucket contents at various points. Oh well. The decision to create as much ethanol as is possible was made a long time ago. At this point we’re just trying not to kill anyone, especially ourselves.

Okay, air lock has been put on the fermentation bucket. In five days time we’ll have to switch fermentation vessels from the bucket to the glass carboy. The mission today has been a success. In a day or so I will post all our prep and process notes, and let you know how the fermentation is going.

For now I leave you with fine words by Arlen the Brewmaster: “Today, we definitely made beer in a bucket.”

Our first brew is still boiling away. We’re getting ready to siphon the batch in through the wort cooler and into the fermentor bucket. Then it gets to sit for a few days. While the boil was going on I got to working on a label of sorts. Since we’re brewing Hedgehog Pale Ale I thought it would be nice to come up with something like a logo. I found a random hedgehog on Google Images and viola...look along the left bar.

Labeling is too expensive for us right now, especially since our first batch will likely to a party at the California Aggie. But hey, maybe one day. Okay, boiling is about done so we’re going to set up the cooling system now. Stay tuned.

We’ve begun brewing! I was hoping to find a digital camera to document our first foray into the world of home brewing (this batch is known as brew 001). Based on the supplies we obtained from our supply trip — thank you Elly — we decided on California pale ale. So far things are looking good, and I will have a bunch of statistical and econ data available soon.

Well, it's Sunday, and that means it's brew time. Arlen is manufacturing the neccesary parts while I calculate our total initial and marginal costs for the first batch. I have high hopes for our first run. We've got a nice set of equipment, and everything we need for a healthy, tasty California pale ale. Once its all calculated I will post our costs for everything, and make some additional posts about the physical brewing process.

On the name front we've made some process. Right now the frontrunner name is "Hedgehog Homebrew" with a nice picture of a pensive looking hedgehog on the front. But we'll see. More posts to follow.

We began preparation work and research today after picking up six books at Shields Library for research. On Saturday we're heading to Sacramento to buy supplies and begin making our first batch. Right now I’m thinking English or California ale will be best for our first run. Something along the lines of Bass or Sierra Nevada. We’ll see.

In the meanwhile, we need a beer name, or at least a codename for our entire operation. Without one, I cannot title my notes anything fancy. I mean, we can just by without name or codename, but where the fun is the fun in that!? Titles are tricky, because they communicate so much in a word or two. This name thing could take some time. Hmm, Arlen Ale? Pirate Pale Ale? Stout Viking? Someone help us.